Far Away for Far too Long
by htbookreader1
Summary: New Moon AU What if the velvet voice in Bella's head isn't imaginary? What if there was someone hidden in the forest, someone who had been gone for far too long Meadow Scene with a major twist. fluff angst please read and review


**A wee break from my Dr who writing to make my inner twilight fangirl squee! Perhaps one shot, but maybe not...**

**Far Away for Far too Long**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, and some of the dialoge isn't mine either. Too bad you can't own a cullen boy**

He steps into the shadows of the forest and feels at peace. For months upon months he has been running. Perhaps if he runs so fast, he can turn back the world, turn back time. So he would never have met her. So he would never have loved her.

So he would never have hurt her.

But he trembles slightly, holding onto the rough tree bark to steady himself. His eyes have never been so dark, so menacing. He has never felt so utterly broken. But he takes a step deeper into the forest, and then another, and another. Soon he finds himself nearly consumed in the dense trees.

This way, he thinks, this way he can be completely in darkness. Alone with his thoughts.

A fearful, yet curious, ray of sunlight dances on his cheek. He moves his sparkling face away from the light, moving deeper into the forest. His feet drag him in a familiar direction, though they feel like lead, like iron.

_You said you would never come back_, he reminds himself, trying to stop his feet from trudging.

He continues moving, step by step, by fearful step. He feels a lump in his throat.

_I need to be farther away. I need to leave this place, too full of memories._

But what he means is: _too full of her._

His feet have spent months obeying his mind. They have ran gracefully across land and sea. But now they follow a different master. A master, he presumed, had long ago stopped beating.

He is not sure why he decided to return. After all, he wanted to give her a better life, a healthy, normal, life. A life without him, he had meant. A life where she had never arrived in the little town, he meant.

And it had all been so easy. It had all been too easy to convince the beautiful girl with bright brown eyes, and a quivering upper lip. To convince her that she was nothing to him. To convince her that she was as insubstantial as the wind. To pretend that he did not love her.

He can still hear her voice in his head. Her echoing pleads ring in his ears.

_Please, _she whispers so clearly. _Let me come with you._

_Take my soul, _she continues, _I don't want it without you._

_Don't leave, _she cries out now, after him. _Edward! _

He winces at the sound of his name. He had heard her trying to follow him through the dense forest he left her in. He had heard the slow yet deliberate movement of her footsteps. He had heard the screams for his name grow softer and softer. And, before he had left the town entirely, he stood in the shadows to make sure that her father held her in his arms.

_You can't just go back after all of that. After all of the damage you've done. _

His thoughts are cut short suddenly. His nostrils inhale and his eyes widen. Though he is wracked with misery and pain, the corners of his mouth cannot help but form into a smile.

_She's here!_

His entire body is filled with life again, with purpose. His steps are surer now, more pronounced. He feels alive, he feels warm. He wonders if she found herself following the same familiar path through the forest as well. He wonders if her heart still beats for him, if her blood still rushes to her cheeks when she thinks of him. He wonders if she still loves him, though he has brought her nothing but pain.

If she _can _still love him.

_If she could still love the monster._

He starts to approach the clearing when he stops. He stops because he smells another scent. A scent that he had, perhaps, not let himself smell, too filled with her fragrance. His hands clench into fists, and his eyes are as black as the darkness he is surrounded in.

_Vampire._

Not just any vampire.

_Laurent._

And then he hears a jumble of thoughts: _Victoria sent me…James' mate…eye for an eye…would hate me if I did it first…still under the Cullen's protection…alone…unguarded…so mouthwatering…_

He growls softly at Laurent's last thought. Because he knows, he knows that he is not the only one who sought her. He knows now, now more than ever, that he should never have left her alone, unprotected. How could have guessed that Victoria would come? Would want her dead so badly that she sent Laurent?

But, he knows, too, if James had hurt her…had _killed_ her…

He would not rest until ever bit of James was destroyed.

_An eye for an eye._

"Laurent!"

He blinks at the sound of her voice. He can just see, only slightly, the clearing ahead of him. He can see two figures standing in front of each other. One stands still, and the other approaches slowly.

_Bella!_

"I didn't expect to find you here," replies Laurent.

He is ready to lunge into the clearing and devour Laurent bit by bit. But he holds himself back. He is afraid that if he steps in, if he appears, then Laurent will kill her. Laurent is closer to Bella than he is, and soon he will be close enough for Laurent to smell his presence and attack her.

His footsteps slow, his eyes focused on her small figure.

"I went to visit the Cullens but the house is empty," says Laurent slowly, almost circling her like a predator.

It nearly kills him, but he forces himself to watch, to watch her, to keep moving forward.

Laurent continues slowly, as if he has all the time in the world. "I was surprised they left you behind, weren't you sort of…a _pet_ of theirs?"

The word cuts him; as if that was all she was to him, as if that was all she meant to him.

It is not the first time that he feels this rage towards his kind.

He sees that she is afraid, he can see her body trembling. "Yeah, you could say that."

Laurent stops now, and looks at her. "Do the Cullens visit often?"

He cannot help himself any longer. Though he knows his words are in vain, though he knows she could never hear him, he whispers to his love softly.

"Lie," he breathes.

She takes a breath. "Yeah, absolutely, all the time."

But he can see that Laurent does not believe her. He sees how red Laurent's eyes are, how they are fixed on her, locked on like a target.

"Lie better," he pleads as softly as the wind.

"I'll tell them that you stopped by," she says, as if she can hear him. As if she can hear the monster whispering to her in the depths of the forest. And he is hoping that she does, somehow, hear his words. That his words sail on a breeze into her beautiful ear.

But Laurent smiles.

"I probably shouldn't," she continues backing away slightly, "tell…Edward, because he's pretty protective."

And when she speaks his name, though it is quiet, he hears music, and feels the heart in him that broken long ago. And when she speaks his name there is nothing else in the world but her, there has never been anything else but her.

"But he's," begins Laurent destroying the music, "far away isn't he?"

He sees how her body slumps in defeat. He sees how she seems to grow weaker, shudder slightly.

He walks slowly through the forest, not letting himself hear the words pouring out of Laurent's mouth, which he knows will frighten her.

"An eye for an eye."

He is so close now, but not close enough. He needs her to delay Laurent for just a little longer. He needs to keep the element of surprise in his attack, but he needs her to be safe.

"Threaten him," he begs.

"Edward will know who did it," she cries suddenly. "And he'd come after you."

He stops suddenly, amazed to hear her speak so well of him. To defend him, even after everything. She doesn't know that he is standing just a little ways away from her. She doesn't know how very close he is, how very much he wants to call her his own. She doesn't know how he adores her, how he loves her.

The beautiful girl with the shimmering brown eyes believes him to be gone, forever maybe. His darling believes that he does not care for her. His Bella thinks he is far away from her.

_But he's far away isn't he?_

The attacker shakes his head. "I don't think he will." He moves closer and closer to her. "After all how much could you mean to him if he left you here, unprotected?"

And she shrugs. He can see her falter, misstep. There is nothing more she can say, nothing more he can hope that she'll say. Because why would he leave her unprotected? He starts to feel incredibly cold. He feels as one of the truly damned, a creature who belongs in the night, shrouded in darkness.

For eternity.

She may not love him anymore. He knows that, he accepts that. But it doesn't matter, none of it matters. Because he will not watch her die. He will not watch her blood split, and her soul escape from her body.

He emerges from the forest slowly. He deliberately makes the leaves around him shake so that Laurent will turn around; force his attention away from her. Laurent's eyes fix on his own. "I don't believe it," he whispers, shaking his head.

"Get away from her," he says.

Laurent smiles and cocks his head to the side. "I don't think so."

"Edward!"

And it is in this moment where everything in his world becomes clear. It is in this instant of time where all the shattered pieces of the universe come together. Because it is in this little bit, this little second, when he looks at her, and sees in her eyes, his reason for being.

His feet, for the second time, lead him to his heart. In one instant he was standing in front of Laurent, in front of her. Now he flies to stand in front of her, letting his fingers brush her arm, feeling how real she is, that she is _there_ with him.

He feels her small grip on his arm. He feels her warmth spreading into his body, consuming him.

"I'm warning you," he says angrily. "Leave her alone."

The bloody-eyed vampire opens and then closes his mouth. "You are fast, Edward."

He does not reply.

"Nothing was going on," chuckles Laurent casually. "I was just having a pleasant conversation with Bella."

He growls at the monster's use of her name. He growls at the monster's audacity to speak a word as beautiful as her name. He has no right, no right, not after the way he threatened her…

"I heard a different story," he replies smoothly.

He feels her grip tighten slightly, feels her pulse quicken. He knows that she is afraid, perhaps terrified. But he feels so incredibly calm, so completely at peace. He has her protected, there is nothing more he could ask for now.

"Right," Laurent snaps his fingers, "you're little gift. I told Victoria about that, she's coming for the girl."

"From the sound of it," he says tightly, "you were also coming for her."

Laurent approaches the two of them. "She smells so good," he says taking an exaggerated breath. "How do you stand it? How can you manage to be so close to her?"

He finds himself smiling. He finds that he is grinning at Laurent.

"What?" asks the monster.

"Nothing." He shakes his head.

"It doesn't matter," says the vampire simply, "I'll just kill you both."

He hisses threateningly at Laurent, but he speaks to her. "You need to run." He is not sure if he can bear to say her name aloud.

"No," she says quietly so that only he can hear her.

He is about to insist that she leave when she yells, "Edward!"

He turns to face Laurent, who begins to lunge himself forward. He meets the sadistic killer in midair and pulls him back to earth. Laurent may be fast, but not fast enough. Laurent may be determined; he may have skill, luck, and talent. But none of what Laurent has, can compare, can measure up in any way, to the sort of power _he _has.

He pins Laurent on the ground so he cannot escape.

Laurent chuckles again and looks into his eyes. He is sure that they are as black as Laurent's are red.

"You may kill me," he whispers with a smile, "but one day the smell of her blood will drive you to madness and you will not be able to help yourself. Mark my words."

He is silent.

"You cannot help what you are," the monster continues. "You are, after all, only a vampire."

He is starting to feel weak again, to feel unworthy.

Until he hears her scream, "Look out!"

Laurent, while he was talking, had freed his hand and was going to plunge it into the target.

But he stops the hand, and begins to break it. He starts to break all of it. All of the monster, all of the nightmare, all of the fears are being destroyed. Then it is all done and he arises silently. Thunder rumbles as he gazes at her.

"Bella," he says quietly, speaking her name as if it all he can say, yet everything he will ever want to say.

"You…" she begins. "You…"

He bits his lip. He does not approach her. "I know," he says quietly, "but if I hadn't killed him then—"

She shakes her head. "No. You…you…you came back."

He takes a step towards her and the skies open up. "I did."

"Why?" She steps towards him. Rain beings to fall.

He does not know what to tell her. "I…"

To his surprise she groans and drops to her knees. The rain continues to pour. "This is a dream, this is a dream and I'm going to wake up, any minute."

He raises a brow, his face, his skin, is soaking wet. He walks closer to her. "You think this is a dream?"

She does not look at him. "Obviously, you're not real, none of this is real, and I'm asleep. But it was nice, nice to see you again."

He sprints to her side, sitting on his knees in front of her, taking her shivering hands in his own.

"Bella," he whispers, now not afraid to speak her name. Now, he is no longer afraid.

"Yes?"

Lightning flashes, bringing his face to light and then fading just as suddenly.

"I came back…I came back because, because…" His voice fades.

She looks up into his eyes.

He bends his forehead lightly into hers so that they touch. "I love you, I cannot live without you."

Her fingers trace his face delicately, softly. "I wanted you to be here, to come from those bushes and save me." She shakes her head, filling his lungs with her. "I just thought…too good to be true."

"You're my world," he tells her gently. "And I'm never leaving you again."

He kisses her mouth and closes his eyes. And in this time, in this one space in time, he feels blessed and enlightened. Though the sun is hidden behind the rain clouds, now, more than ever, does he feel as if his soul is alight. He may never be human, he may always be a monster, a vampire.

But he will always be hers. He has always been hers.

"Bella," he says, "marry me."

She smiles at him. "Change me."

He brings her close to him as the rain pours on. "How about, for now, love me."

"For always," she replies kissing him.

**My hope is that it is good and y'all like it. Part of me wants to do a twist on every part where she thinks she sees eddie...but im not sure if that would work. Tell me your thoughts? **


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